Chapter 80 - Regrets
Chapter 80 – Regrets
The Imperial Palace.
When She returned to the banquet hall, the Emperor and Empress were yet to arrive. The guests were all present, all that remained was the Emperor and Empress. Even the Crown Prince and Commandery Princess Xia were present.
Zhu Feifei sat next to the Sixth Prince and socialized as if nothing happened. Su Liya glared at her for a few seconds before looking away, she just couldn't stand this monster wearing human skin. She wasn't going to let them go scot-free for doing that to her. Su Liya glanced at Zhu Fenfang who sat next to madam Zhu and smiled. There was her first target.
Lu Yaozhu and Lu Yingjie came in a few minutes later, they were immediately swamped by guests as they walked in. A few of the guests were friends but the majority of them were all trying to curry favour with them. The Lu family was the most powerful family after tge royal family so their words had a lot of weight..
Lu Yaozhu skillfully manoeuvred the crowd until he got to the free seat on the table next to Su Liya. He smiled at Su Liya as he got seated before turning to the persistent crowd in front of the table. A few of the guests noticing the exchange between husband and wife began to fawn on Su Liya too.
They congratulations them on their marriage and praised them for being a beautiful couple. Su Liya was surprised at how eloquently these overzealous men praised her. They were surprisingly good at empty talks, they gave compliments as good as women.
All that noise attracted peoples attention, the sixth Prince included. Zhongshan Cheng clicked his tongue when he saw them surround Lu Yaozhu. He muttered "sycophants! Look at them surround this declining man, who can not even save himself.
"Oh….. Why is she seated next to him?"
Zhu Feifei followed his gaze and locked eye with Su Liya, her heart immediately sank but she soldiered on. She shrugged and replied "Her? That is the scheming little maid that seduced our fine General"
"Huh! That is the maid you especially found for him? Is this supposed to be a blessing or a curse? Why would you give him such a good looking wife like her, is your eyes bad? Instead of giving her to this rough barbarian, you should have married her into my Haram. Isn't that also part of your duty as an imperial consort?"
Zhu Feifei's eyes narrowed immediately. She glared at him as she said "are those sluts at your side courtyard not enough for you? You still want to have more?"
Zhongshan Cheng brought his hands under the table and held her hit her on the lap sharply. He said tightly "You had better behave you little bitch. Don't think that I can not deal with you because we are in public".
She whispered "Ah! It hurts!"
"Good that would teach you to be careful what you say. Judging from your envious reaction, you must know this maid. I heard she was your elder sister's ladies maid. Who is she to you"
"Who is she to me" Zhu feifei laughed softly and whispered "isn't she, your mistress or do you have so many, you cannot remember them all" she hissed as he hit her laps once again.
"Ah my dear wife, this is why it isn't good to speculate. I would remember If I had someone as exquisite as her, I guess that was why you chose her." He chuckled and pulled his hands from under the table.
"You are lying, someone saw you two together during daughter's day"
"That person must be mistaken because I went out with Faye that night. My dear wife, you really shouldn't believe everything you are told, at least make your judgment of things" Zhongshan Cheng was quickly called over by his younger brother so she was left to her thoughts.
Which as expected was conflicted, she didn't know who to believe. She looked from Zhu fenfang and Su Liya, even if her husband was right and he doesn't have anything to do with Su Liya, she didn't understand why Zhu fenfang would lie. Except she borrowed her hand to deal with Su Liya.
All logical thoughts led to that but Zhu Feifei didn't wish to believe it. Maybe because that would mean her accepting the fact that she was manipulated by someone she considered herself superior to.
Today seemed to be the day of discovery since even the Commandery Princess Xia Ying also made her discovery. Xia Yong had been silently observing the other guests in the hall from her elevated position at the table after the crown prince when they were a cluster of guests at the door.
She looked to the entrance curious about who would get such a response from the guests. It has to be someone of high rank, whoever that was, had to be only a step below the royal family. The guests surrounded two male figures, they were quite much so she couldn't see the faces of the new arrivals.
Xia Ying spent most of her years in her grandparent's country and wasn't familiar with the noble families in the capital. She could only rely on the gossipy young princess seated next to her to identify this heavy hitter.
Xia Ying was sandwiched between two third-ranked Princesses, around the same age as her. They were daughters of 2nd and third-ranked Princes, they were both very chatty and tried to rope her into their conversations. This must have been the Empress's arrangements to make her feel more comfortable.
Xia Ying turned to the Princess to her left. Xia Ying had observed that of the two princesses, she was the information supplier. Xia Ying gesture to the little cluster of people close to the entrance and asked A-Mei, why are they all surrounding them? Who are they?"
A-Mei gazed at the cluster of people, "oh that is the Duke of Wu Lu Yingjie and the new Marquis of Yuozhuo General Lu Yaozhu".
The crowd gradually separated and two tall young men walked out of the crowd. XXiaoYing was shocked to find herself face to face with her saviour.
She opened and closed her mouth and asked once more "That is Lu Yaozhu".
"Yes, the two of them are very important officials in court. General Lu is the popular God of War, he recently got married too. His marriage caused quite the scandal because you see his wife was a maid".
Xia Ying couldn't hear anything else she said after she found out the real identity of her saviour. Everything just buzzed in her ears, like her ears were filled with water.
She had searched continuously for his identity but Little did she know that he was her former fiancee. Her heart hurt a little as she watched as Lu Yaozhu exchanged a brief smile with his wife Su Liya. It was like she was in a bad nightmare, why didn't she bother to find out how her fiancee looked like. She was even stupidity relieved that he had married someone else. How she regretted all that now.
The banquet went smoothly but a few of the guests left with heavy hearts. That night at mingxi pavilion, Su Liya tossed and turned for hours before finally going to bed. Even as she slept her night was full with recounts of the painful memory of waking up at the palace that afternoon and the memory from the playground when she was 8 years old.
To put it plainly, she had a very shitty night. Which resulted in an equally shitty morning because she was forced to wake up very early and pay respects to madam Lu. She didn't sleep well and had the bags under her eyes to prove it, she was so irritated that she could not tolerate the snide comments made by Lu Yiling.
She was in luck that morning because while she was on her way to madam Lu's courtyard, Nanny Chu sent down a message to her that madam Lu was exhausted from the banquet last night and won't be seeing them today.
Su Liya didn't question the message, she was equally exhausted and the break. After the day she had yesterday, Su Liya wasn't in the right mindset to meet anyone, she was far too angry and might explode at the littlest provocation.
Baozhai and Rong Rong noticed their madam's current state of mind and made sure to keep her from getting more stressed. They instructed the servants to be quiet and avoid making any mistakes.
As soon as she got back to her room, Su Liya was served her breakfast. After eating, the dishes were sent away. Su Liya laid back on the recliner and shut her eyes. A few minutes later, she asked the maid standing next to her "Baozhai, has the general left for court?"
"Yes, your Highness"
Su Liya didn't respond and just turned to face the at of the recliner. She was still for some time that it one would think that she was asleep but she wasn't. She silently made her plans to deal with the Zhu sisters.